Feasibility Study On The Combination Of Shaoyang Sock Puppet Art And Animation

Nowadays, among the various visual patterns of expression of animation aesthetics in contemporary China, there exist a few successful animation works characterized by puppet figures, let alone those works characterized by sock puppet art. As the only remaining original form of sock puppet art, Shaoyang sock puppet can be traced back to more than600years ago. However, monographs on Shaoyang sock puppet art can seldom be seen today. Essays on Hunan Puppetry Arts mostly describe its drama themes and vocal skills, few giving deep and thorough discussion on its combination with animation art. As one kind of stop-motion animations, puppet animation, developed from the traditional puppet show, reserves the essence of the traditional form and adopts feasible and developmental strategy for its combination with modern animation art, which not only helps enrich the localization of domestic animation art but also enhances its distinct Chinese characteristics and research value.After more than70years’ exploration, the glory ever possessed by Chinese animation, which is an important part of world animation, has made it clear that the only way to be one powerful animation nation is to persist in developing ethnic animation. Therefore, every innovation should be based on the inherence of the local culture. The exploration of the "animation elements" which correspond to the characteristics of animation making in traditional arts and the establishing of a new and developable artistic style and the realization of its industrialization should be premised on the respect of traditional puppet culture. To ensure the booming and thriving of Chinese folk arts in the long term, good modernized production and operation mechanism should be combined with the actual situation, namely, the multi-direction of animation, to push forward the industrialization of traditional arts.This essay is divided into three parts. The first part offers a brief introduction of the history of Puppetry Arts and Hunan puppet show. Then follows the theory-based systematic arrangement of the collected information of Shaoyang puppet show, and the conclusion of the performance characteristics of the combination of animation art and Shaoyang puppet show, such as modeling of puppet figures, scene designs, theatrical music, drama content and so on. The last part is a relatively refining of the second part. Basing on the current development of animation industry, the third part puts forward a strategic exploration on the innovation of Puppetry Arts in animation, and concludes the connects and contrasts between Puppetry Arts and modern animation to find out the distinct features of puppet show that deserves inheriting and developing, and to come up with plans and measures for its current weak status. The combination of traditional puppet theatre and modern animation arts will help to realize the inheriting and developing of the folk puppet.